I'm a Windows Phone user, so I'm feeling pretty strong antipathy for Google at the moment and I'm receptive to Microsoft's message. However for myself and many other people this move isn't necessarily easy for two reasons:
- I use many google services besides gmail (for instance, this is a blogger blog). Can I ditch Google entirely, or do I have to have the inconvenience of using accounts on multiple platforms to access the services I want to use?
- My family, friends and work colleagues use google services. How do I collaborate with them?
Microsoft: I'm ready and willing, tell me what to do.
Nokia: interested in your ideas as my phone is a Nokia device, and you have been producing some nice online services and Windows Phone apps.
I have had a go at putting together a table listing Google service, equivalent MS/Nokia service, the experience from the WP user's perspective and the experience for googlers I collaborate with. This table probably still needs lots of work!
I was pessimistic before compiling this, but the results are actually not too bad so far. To me the hard areas are where private sharing is needed - Calendar, Drive, Apps. For non-US-based people, Bing is a constant disappointment and very hard to switch to.
Notes:
- I have not included entertainment as this is covered elsewhere.
- Call me old school, but I still do a lot of stuff on desktop/laptop and this is important to me.
| Google Service | Microsoft/Nokia Service | Individual experience | Non-MS collaboration experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail | Outlook.com | I used my Gmail account as an email aggregator. I could filter easily by account and reply from other accounts. Not sure if Outlook.com will be as good? | Dude it's just email |
| Calendar | Outlook.com calendar | Hurry up and modernize it! | Public Outlook.com calendar items? |
| Contacts | Outlook.com contacts | Can contacts be shared by either? | |
| Drive | Skydrive | My experience with Skydrive has been nicer I use Otixo as an online storage aggregator so experience not so important to me |
Move file to google using Otixo and share Public Skydrive file links - download only? |
| Apps | Office Web Apps | Not as mature as Apps, can be quite slow, crashes occasionally | Public Skydrive file links - download only? |
| Search | Bing | Bing is a US-only sideshow and has a frankly feeble international presence | I don't have a need to share search results |
| Blogger | Windows Live Spaces | Is WLS still available? | Blogs are usually public, should be no issue |
| Google+ | so.cl | Experience dependent on community size. Why not just use Facebook? | No one I know is likely to sign up. Why not just use Facebook? |
| Reader | Nokia Xpress? Is there an online service behind this that I can access from the desktop? | Online rss service seems to have been a gaping hole in MS offering forever | Sharing and commenting desirable, could be achieved via links to social services |
| News | Bing News | As per search. Lousy experience outside US | Sharing and commenting desirable, could be achieved via links to social services |
| Youtube | MSN video (dead?) | Skydrive (as far as storage allows) but I don't really have a need to privately share videos, and very little need to upload at all | Youtube has private videos but nobody I know is using it |
| Translate | Bing translator | My experience with both is fine | I'm not aware of any reason to share private translations |
| Maps | Bing Maps Nokia Here |
Again Bing's international support lets the side down - limited availability of traffic or transit info | I don't have much need to create/share map overlays |
